Rise and Shine on Democrats

Executive Summary

As the 2008 presidential campaign season gets underway, wide-open
primary races in both the Republican and Democratic parties are
competing for the media’s attention. So are the broadcast networks
covering both sides equally, or are they tilting the campaign playing
field in favor of liberal Democratic candidates?

To find out, Media Research Center analysts reviewed all 517 campaign segments on ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s The Early Show and NBC’s Today
from January 1 through July 31. Those three broadcast morning shows
draw nine times the audience of their cable news competitors, and are
geared toward everyday voters, not political junkies. These programs
are therefore a prime battleground in each campaign’s quest for
positive media attention.

The results are astonishing: Not only are the network morning
shows overwhelmingly focused on Democrats, they are actively promoting
the Democrats’ liberal agenda.

Among the major findings:

The networks offered nearly twice as much coverage of the
Democrats. More than half of all campaign segments (284, or 55%)
focused on the Democratic contest, compared with just 152 (29%)
devoted to the Republicans. The remaining stories either offered roughly
equal discussion of both parties or did not focus on the major
parties.

All three Democratic frontrunners received more attention than
any of the top Republican candidates, with New York Senator Hillary
Clinton receiving the most coverage of all.

Undeclared liberal candidates such as former Vice President Al
Gore and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg received more network
TV attention than many of the declared Republican candidates.

The network morning shows doled out nearly three times as much
airtime (4 hours, 35 minutes) to interviews with the various
Democratic campaigns. In contrast, the Republicans received just 1
hour and 44 minutes of interview airtime.

In their interviews with the candidates, the network hosts
emphasized a liberal agenda. Of the substantive questions that could
be categorized as reflecting a political agenda, more than two-thirds
(69%) of the questions to Democrats reflected a liberal premise, and
more than four-fifths (82%) of the questions to Republicans came
from the same perspective.

The top Democratic candidates received much more favorable
coverage than their GOP counterparts, with Senator Clinton cast as
"unbeatable" and Illinois Senator Barack Obama tagged as a "rock
star." The most prominent Republican, Arizona Senator John McCain,
was portrayed as a loser because of his support for staying the course
in Iraq.

Not once did network reporters describe Senator Clinton and
former North Carolina Senator John Edwards as "liberal," while ABC
only once labeled Obama as "liberal." Yet the networks showed no
hesitation in attaching the "liberal" label to Republican frontrunner
Rudy Giuliani, who was so branded 12 times.

These early returns suggest that ABC, CBS and NBC are skewing their
news in ways that will benefit the Democratic candidates in 2008. The
broadcast networks have a responsibility to cover both parties in a
fair and even-handed manner — not for the sake of the candidates, but
for the voters. That means giving viewers a chance to hear from all of
the major candidates in interviews, asking them similar questions, and
balancing the day-to-day news coverage to keep both Democratic and
Republican primary voters equally well-informed.

Introduction

In the coming months, Democratic and Republican primary voters will
gather to choose their nominees for President of the United States.
Unlike most election years, no incumbent is on the ballot this time,
leaving both parties with wide-open nomination contests. The large
number of candidates in each race leaves voters with much to learn
about the many competitors’ biographies, records, stances on issues,
and personal character.

But are the broadcast networks providing roughly equivalent coverage
of both the Democratic and Republican races? Or are liberal
journalists giving more broadcast airtime and more favorable coverage to
the leading Democratic candidates, handing that party an advantage
going into next year’s campaign season?

To find out, a team of Media Research Center analysts examined all
campaign stories on the three broadcast network morning programs from
January 1 to July 31, 2007. Compared to cable news, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s The Early Show and NBC’s Today
have a much larger combined audience — 13.7 million viewers during the
first three months of this year, nine times as many as watch CNN, FNC
and MSNBC combined at the same hours.

Unlike the networks’ evening newscasts, the two- and three-hour long
morning shows can spend far more time delving into a candidates’
record (Good Morning America, for example, has already hosted
two town hall-style meetings with candidates). And, unlike the networks’
Sunday morning shows, the three morning shows are not geared toward
political junkies, but rather the everyday voters that campaigns seek
to reach. Consequently, the broadcast morning shows are a prime
battleground in the candidates’ competition for media attention and
positive coverage.

Our analysts tabulated the total amount of coverage given to the two
nomination races and each of the candidates, including all field
reports, interviews and brief news items. Then the analysts conducted a
more detailed examination of each interview with either one of the
candidates or a designated surrogate (usually the candidate’s spouse),
and tallied the airtime and whether the questions posed to the
candidate represented a liberal or conservative agenda, or were
ideologically neutral.

The results show that all three of the network morning shows are a
favorable media forum for the Democratic candidates, and more
forbidding terrain for the Republicans.

TV's Morning Shows Throw Their Spotlight on the Democrats

With Election Day well over a year away, the presidential campaign
has already gotten off to a strong start on the Big Three morning
shows. From January 1 to July 31, MRC analysts tallied 517 campaign
items on the weekday editions of ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’s Early Show and NBC’s Today.
About two-thirds of these items (345) were long segments — either full
reports from field correspondents or interviews with candidates or
analysts. The remaining 172 items were relatively brief discussions of
the campaign, mainly short anchor-read news stories.

Overall, the networks offered nearly twice as much coverage of the
Democratic primary race than the Republican contest. More than half of
all campaign segments (284, or 55%) focused on the Democrats, compared
with just 152 (29%) devoted to the Republican candidates. Another 13
percent (66 stories) contained discussions of both parties, while 15
stories (3% of the total) focused on a possible independent candidacy
of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

While all three networks gave more attention to the Democrats, ABC’s Good Morning America was
the most tilted, with more than twice as many segments on the
Democrats (119, or 62% of their campaign stories) than on the
Republicans (51 stories, or 26% of ABC’s total). CBS’s Early Show featured
Democrats in more than half of their campaign news (75 stories, or
54%), compared to less than a third that featured Republicans (44
stories, or 31%). Meanwhile, just under half of the coverage on NBC’s Today (90 stories, or 49%) featured Democrats, compared to 57 stories (31%) about the GOP.

The skew in favor of the Democratic race has been evident all year.
In January, the networks all excitedly jumped on the announcements that
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would join the race, contributing to a
total of 52 Democratic stories that month. In contrast, the GOP
contest garnered just five stories that month, a ten-to-one imbalance.

As the accompanying chart shows, the networks’ inordinate emphasis
on the Democratic nomination contest continued in February and March,
with nearly twice as many stories on the Democrats than on the
Republicans. In April, the gap between the two parties actually
narrowed, and in May — thanks to coverage of the first major Republican
debate — the networks actually spent more time on the GOP, though not
by much. In June and July, however, the gap between the two parties
once again grew, with Democrats receiving more than twice as much
coverage in July (52 stories vs. 22).

While about one-third of stories focused on more than one candidate —
such as debate stories, or items about a verbal exchange between
Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, for example — about two-thirds
emphasized a single candidate. Remarkably, all three of the Democratic
frontrunners — Clinton, Obama and John Edwards — were each the subject
of more of these single-candidate stories than each of the three of the
Republican front-runners, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Interestingly, the networks also aired more stories about the
never-declared candidacy of former Democratic Vice President Al Gore
than the actual candidacies of Republicans Romney and Giuliani.

MRC analysts noted distinct themes in the coverage each candidate
received. In general, they discovered that the top Democratic
candidates have been treated like celebrities, while coverage of the
top GOP contenders has emphasized their flaws and problems. Here’s a
summary of how the top ten candidates have been portrayed:

Hillary Clinton, President-in-Waiting. Not only has Senator
Clinton received more media attention than any other candidate from
either party (61 stories), hers has been the only campaign where
staffers have been welcomed on the morning shows as substitutes for the
candidate, an indulgence normally reserved for sitting presidents or
actual nominees. The June 28 Good Morning America even featured a
lengthy segment with 10 female staffers, what ABC’s Chris Cuomo touted
as "an ABC News exclusive look behind the scenes at the Clinton
campaign, a campaign that’s making history, not only for women but by
women."

When she announced her candidacy in late January, all three of the
morning shows followed up with heavy coverage, more than for any other
candidate’s debut. On January 22, NBC’s Today featured her campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe while CBS’s Early Show hosted
campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson. CBS’s Joie Chen even suggested that
"it might be easier to get an audience with the Wizard of Oz than
steal Clinton’s thunder right now."

The next morning, all three shows featured the candidate herself,
whom ABC’s Diane Sawyer touted as the woman "who has single-handedly
kicked this race into overdrive." CBS’s Harry Smith cast the Clintons’
scandalous past in the most sympathetic light. "You were under the
glare of the spotlight for eight years," Smith told Clinton. "Many of
those days had to have been horrible. Why go back? Why go back into the
middle of the white hot glare of that light?"

As the campaign progressed, the networks were drawn to even the most
minor events. In June, for example, all three morning shows played a
goofy campaign spoof where Bill and Hillary Clinton parodied the last
episode of HBO’s The Sopranos. NBC’s Matt Lauer declared it "a
hit" and "clever," while fellow anchor Meredith Vieira exclaimed she
"loved" it. On ABC, correspondent George Stephanopoulos (once a top
aide to the Clintons) called it "effective" in "showing she’s also a
human being who can laugh at herself." And on CBS, Bob Schieffer called
the spot "hilarious," claiming "it’s one of the cleverest things I’ve
seen in a long, long time."

Network analysts refuted the notion that Clinton is too liberal.
"People think she’s a liberal, even though she’s hawkish," MSNBC’s
Chris Matthews argued on NBC on January 15. Two days later, NBC’s Tim
Russert echoed: "She seems to be yielding the left in the Democratic
primary on the war issue to Senator Edwards, trying to carve out a
broad center position."

On February 20, NBC’s David Gregory explored whether Clinton could
win support among conservatives: "Are the Clinton-haters mellowing?" he
suggested, adding how "some conservatives credit Mrs. Clinton with
working to shed her liberal image dating back to her push for universal
health care. They also note her stand on the Iraq war has made her a
target for liberals, not conservatives." Not once in seven months did a
network morning show reporter or analyst label Senator Clinton as a
"liberal."

The networks also touted the theme of Clinton’s "inevitability." On June 18, NBC’s Today
led with a segment headlined, "Is Hillary Clinton Unbeatable?" Co-host
Meredith Vieira wondered, "Why is she doing so well?...Could she
possibly be the Teflon candidate?" The following month, CBS’s Bob
Schieffer saw great importance in Clinton’s shot at Obama as naive. "I
think it’s Christmas in July for Mrs. Clinton," Schieffer enthused to
co-host Harry Smith on the July 25 Early Show. "More and more, Harry, it looks to me as if this is going to be Mrs. Clinton's nomination to lose."

John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards’ Husband. While former
Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards ranked second only to
Hillary Clinton in overall coverage (44 stories), the morning shows
seemed more interested in Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, than his
presidential campaign.

Edwards’ official announcement came in late December 2006, before
our study period began, but like Clinton he was invited to appear on
all three network morning programs. After that, Edwards was essentially
eclipsed by Clinton and Obama, only returning to the spotlight with
the unfortunate announcement in late March that his wife’s cancer had
returned. The network reactions were appropriately sympathetic, with
NBC’s Vieira calling Elizabeth Edwards "a lady of great optimism and
true grit."

ABC’s Good Morning America has been the most favorable to
Edwards, uniquely profiling him in April as he spent a day as a nurse’s
aide in a bid to win the endorsement of the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU). In July, Good Morning America hosted
Edwards for a lengthy town hall meeting on poverty, a total of 38
minutes of morning show airtime. (The show conducted a similar event
with Hillary Clinton in March, totaling 26 minutes; ABC has yet to host
a meeting with a Republican candidate.)

Despite the fact that Edwards has taken strongly liberal positions
in this campaign, not one network reporter labeled him as a "liberal"
during the seven months we examined.

The network morning shows were more drawn to Elizabeth Edwards than
her candidate husband. Two weeks after her cancer diagnosis was
announced, ABC’s Cynthia McFadden offered a five-minute profile of Mrs.
Edwards and her children, a longer version of which later aired on Nightline.
Then in June, when Mrs. Edwards attacked conservative commentator Ann
Coulter, all three networks quickly booked her as a guest. The
questioning was decidedly friendly. "You decided to get involved with
someone who is a professional provocateur," ABC’s Chris Cuomo told
Edwards, suggesting the candidate’s wife had lowered herself. "Why
decide to call in and go toe-to-toe with someone like Ann Coulter?"

And on July 31, ABC celebrated the Edwards’ wedding anniversary.
Co-host Robin Roberts cooed: "We have a very special picture of the
morning. It’s an anniversary party of sorts at Wendy’s. That, of
course, presidential nominee [sic] John Edwards and his beautiful wife
Elizabeth. 30 years. Their 30th anniversary." In case viewers at home
were beside themselves with curiosity, Roberts explained how Elizabeth
had a "Frosty and also some chili as well. He had a cheeseburger."
Co-host Diane Sawyer gushed: "That’s right. And they are going to renew
their vows. Happy anniversary."

Barack Obama, Democratic "Rock Star." (With WMV video clip/MP3 audio) In the race for the
network spotlight, the junior Senator from Illinois was close behind
John Edwards, with 41 morning show segments featuring Barack Obama. The
early coverage of his campaign was effusive. "He’s today the political
equivalent of a rock star," CBS’s Gloria Borger trumpeted on the
January 17 Early Show, adding: "An appearance by Obama looks
like a mosh pit." The next day, NBC’s Matt Lauer agreed: "He’s got rock
star buzz around him."

Within days of Obama’s announcement, the networks began treating him as a top Democratic frontrunner. On the January 18 Good Morning America,
correspondent Claire Shipman suggestedObama and Clinton were an
embarrassment of riches for the Democratic Party, contrasting
Obama’s "fluid poetry" with Clinton’s "hot factor." (See
accompanying video.) A few weeks later, reporter Jake Tapper touted a
Hollywood reception for Obama: "The stars came out for another
million dollar affair, honoring a thin, statuesque idol of color.
No, not Oscar — Obama, Barack Obama." In case anyone missed the
point, ABC’s graphic department grafted the smiling face of Barack
Obama onto a picture of a gold Academy Awards trophy.

Unlike his competitors at CBS and NBC, however, ABC’s Tapper was
the only network reporter to attach Obama to the "liberal" label.
"Obama has drawn raves for presenting fairly traditional liberal views
as fresh and inspiring," Tapper noted in a January 17 story.

By summer, the Obama campaign had lost some of its shine, especially
after a series of foreign policy comments that the Clinton campaign
said illustrated the candidate’s naivete. CBS’s Bob Schieffer thought
it showed Obama was too green: "Yes, Barack Obama’s raising money. Yes,
he makes a good impression. But this Clinton machine is now really
rolling," he argued on the July 25 Early Show. But over on NBC’s Today
that same morning, Tim Russert suggested Obama had gotten the better
of Clinton: "He punches back by saying, ‘Hold on! You want naivete? You
want irresponsibility? [Naivete] is voting for George Bush’s war!’"

Yet a few days earlier, when Obama suggested schools present
"age-appropriate" sex education classes to kindergarten children, only
ABC’s Good Morning America mentioned the matter — and then
turned its fire on a Republican candidate who dared challenge Obama. ABC
reporter David Wright did not cast Obama’s comment as controversial,
but suggested former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney was a hypocrite
for raising the issue, because "Massachusetts has one of the most
progressive sex education curriculums in the country...[starting]
during pre-school." And "as governor, Romney never sought to repeal
Massachusetts’ comprehensive sex education laws."

John McCain, Casualty of Bush’s War. A favorite of campaign
reporters during the 2000 campaign, the network morning shows have
given McCain more coverage than any of his GOP rivals (31 stories), but
only about half as much as Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

But much of McCain’s coverage has emphasized the sinking nature of
his campaign — declining poll ratings and fundraising that has failed
to meet expectations. And while during his last campaign the media
celebrated McCain’s courage for taking positions unpopular with the GOP
base (such as his bill to regulate campaign speech and his opposition
to large tax cuts), this time network reporters suggested McCain’s
problem was his failure to pander on the issue of the Iraq war. (See
box.)

"John McCain has lost ground in the polls because of his support for
the Iraq war," NBC’s David Gregory stated flatly on April 9. "McCain’s
candidacy has stalled with his embrace of President Bush’s Iraq war
strategy," his colleague Kelly O’Donnell similarly argued on April 25.
In reality, all of the top GOP contenders share McCain’s support for
staying the course in Iraq; what set McCain apart from the other
candidates (and the base of the party) was his "maverick" history of
supporting liberal initiatives (the trait reporters found so endearing
eight years ago), and his vocal support of an immigration reform bill
that most conservatives detested.

While most network reporters did acknowledge the damage caused by
McCain’s immigration stance, they still preferred to insist that it is
the candidate’s hawkish stance on Iraq that has damaged his standing
with rank-and-file GOP voters. "The supreme irony," CBS’s Jeff
Greenfield suggested on July 9, is "that the person most hurt by
President Bush’s unpopularity is the guy who ran against him seven
years ago."

Al Gore, Savior of the Planet. (WMV video clip/MP3 audio) Like Republican Fred
Thompson, the ex-Vice President was not an announced candidate during
the seven months we studied, and unlike Thompson gave no strong sign
that he even planned to run. Yet Gore was featured in 29 network
stories casting him as a potential presidential candidate in 2008, more
coverage than most of the actual candidates.

Gore’s coverage consisted of praise for his
work on behalf of a liberal global warming agenda and open pitches for
a Gore candidacy. "The toast of the town in Hollywood is the talk
of the town in Washington," CBS’s Gloria Borger trumpeted after
Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth won an Oscar. She praised the former VP’s savvy and hipness: "Al Gore is now considered ahead of his time."
"Supporters say this is a new Al Gore,
more confident than ever," NBC’s Andrea Mitchell argued on March
21. "Some believe Al Gore would be the perfect choice, a mix of the
rock star appeal of Barack Obama and the political experience and
money-raising muscle of Hillary Clinton," NBC’s John Yang enthused on
May 18.

On May 30, CBS’s Harry Smith tried to tease Gore into the race,
ending an interview by holding a "Gore 2008" button up to Gore’s
lapel (see accompanying video). Earlier in the year, Smith had
asked businessman Richard Branson, a partner with Gore in an
environmental venture, "Is Al Gore a prophet?" During that February 9
interview, Smith also pleaded with Gore: "Would you not be better off
trying to affect this change from the White House?"

If Gore does wind up joining the 2008 scrum, the months of
flattering network coverage could be seen as a massive campaign
contribution to his liberal cause.

Rudy Giuliani, Scandal-Scarred Liberal. In spite of his
frontrunner status, the former New York City mayor has received
surprisingly little coverage, just 26 items. In contrast to the heavy
coverage of Edwards’, Clinton’s and Obama’s announcements, ABC and NBC
offered only a quick anchor brief when Giuliani made it official on
CNN’s Larry King Live in February. Only CBS offered something approaching a full segment that day; on the February 15 Early Show,
Politico.com’s Mike Allen explained Giuliani’s strategy to co-host
Harry Smith. "He’s trying to show that he is conservative, that he’s
not a liberal, without being someone he’s not. That’s a very tough
line."

Interestingly, the networks used the "liberal" label 12 times to
describe Giuliani’s views, particularly on social issues. In contrast,
the entire Democratic field has been termed "liberal" just twice during
the same period (with one label for Obama and another for New Mexico
Governor Bill Richardson).

"Giuliani stands atop the polls not because of his moderate to
liberal social views, but in spite of them," CBS’s Jeff Greenfield
accurately noted on May 11. "Social conservatives don’t trust
Giuliani’s liberal stand on social issues and his past personal
behavior," NBC’s Andrea Mitchell agreed on March 12.

Reporters also delved into discussions of Giuliani’s personal life.
"Does his personal life turn out to be a kind of Achilles heel?" ABC’s
Diane Sawyer wondered on March 30. "He is reportedly estranged from his
children, on his third marriage to a woman we haven’t met before." A
few minutes later, viewers saw a clip of Barbara Walters asking
Giuliani, "Do you think that we have gotten to the point in this country
where divorce, or the number of divorces, is not important in electing
a president?"

"Our papers here in New York have been filled with this stuff about
him being estranged from his children. He doesn’t talk to his
daughter," CBS’s Harry Smith suggested on March 5. Referring to
Giuliani’s frontrunner status, Smith wondered, "Once all of this comes
out, are conservatives going to be likely to embrace him?"

But when it came to the Democratic frontrunner’s dirty laundry,
reporters seemed much more hesitant. In a June 4 interview, ABC’s Chris
Cuomo seemed troubled when he heard authors Jeff Gerth and Don Van
Natta describe how the Clintons had decades ago made a pact of
ambition, scolding, "It’s a heavy charge to judge a marriage that way."
And ABC’s Claire Shipman on January 22 dismissed the various Clinton
scandals as relevant only to a few Hillary-haters: "It certainly seems a
smaller matter now, but the taint of those days still drives some
anti-Hillary sentiment."

Mitt Romney, Flip-Flopping Mormon. Former Massachusetts
Governor Mitt Romney and Democrat John Edwards seem to occupy about the
same tier in their respective parties. Both trail in national polls by
significant margins, but are at or near the top in the earliest states
— Edwards in Iowa, Romney in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

Yet Romney was featured in just 19 morning show segments, less than
half the coverage given to Edwards. Romney has fared best on NBC, which
included an interview on the day he announced his campaign (Matt Lauer
apologized on the air for not being able to fly to Michigan for the
event), and a May 30 "Today on the Trail" segment in which Lauer shadowed Romney during a New Hampshire campaign swing.

Every profile of Romney included discussion of his Mormonism, with
reporters suggesting voters would reject a Mormon candidate. "A recent
survey found that 38 percent of white evangelical Protestants say they
would have serious doubts about voting for a Mormon," Lauer told Romney
on May 30. "Should you just come out with a ‘Kennedy moment’ and say,
‘Look, folks, here’s the deal. Here’s my faith, here’s what it’s all
about, here’s what I stand for?""

Appearing on ABC’s Good Morning America in April to tout his
fundraising success, Romney got hit with the same question from Robin
Roberts: "Many are wondering if you will take a page from former
President Kennedy, who had addressed the nation about his Catholic
upbringing. Do you anticipate doing the same?" Romney griped: "There’s
probably not a single interview I do with you guys that doesn’t raise
the issue, so of course we talk about it."

In June, ABC wondered if Romney’s candidacy was jeopardizing other
Mormons. "Fairly or unfairly," ABC’s Dan Harris intoned, "Romney’s
Mormonism is coming in for increased scrutiny. This has some Mormons
nervous about a resurgence of the type of bigotry the church has faced
since it was founded 177 years ago."

Reporters also challenged Romney over his shifting stance on
abortion. NBC’s Lauer confronted Romney on the day he announced: "It
doesn’t take a huge cynic to say, ‘Wait a minute, in 2002 he said what
he said and did what he did because he was currying the favor of liberal
voters in Massachusetts. And now he’s doing what he’s doing and saying
what he’s saying to curry the favor of conservative voters he’s going
to need for the nomination.’"

Comparing Romney’s problems to those of Rudy Giuliani, ABC’s David
Wright asserted that "to win the GOP nomination," Romney "has to get
past his own liberal baggage." Wright then played a soundbite from
political analyst Ken Rudin: "The fact is that he ran for Senate in 1994
as pro-choice, pro-stem cell research, pro-gay rights. When he ran for
governor in 2002, he was also liberal on these issues." Wright:
"Romney is now running as a born-again conservative — a tough sell."

Joe Biden, Gaffe Machine. Delaware Senator Joe Biden, a
frequent morning show guest over the years, received more coverage than
the other bottom-tier Democrats (16 stories), but nothing like the
warm reception given to his party’s three frontrunners. Soon after his
announcement, Biden was forced to apologize for calling Barack Obama a
"clean" and "articulate" candidate, comments seen as racially
insensitive. "On Capitol Hill, Senator Biden is known for two qualities
— foreign policy expertise and for talking too much," ABC’s Jake
Tapper told co-host Robin Roberts on the February 1 Good Morning America. "It’s the second one, Robin, that got him in trouble."

In May, CBS’s Bob Schieffer highlighted another Biden remark, this
one about Democrats’ plans to capitalize on the President’s veto of a
bill. "We’re going to shove it down his throat," Biden railed.
Schieffer sounded downright sorrowful: "Although he’s one of the most
informed people in the Congress, on foreign policy especially, he has
had this habit of making these boners."

Mike Bloomberg, the Great Liberal Hope. Amid suggestions that
the billionaire mayor of New York City might run as a self-financed
independent, the networks saw great significance in Bloomberg’s
decision in June to leave the Republican Party that he’d joined only to
run for mayor in 2001. "This morning, who needs Washington?" ABC’s
Diane Sawyer exclaimed on June 20. "The hugely popular mayor of New
York City ditches the Republican label and declares independence,
asking if other Americans are ready for a change. Has the presidential
race just been thrown a giant curve ball?"

The media boomlet for Bloomberg generated 15 stories in June and
July, giving the non-candidate more coverage than many of the announced
contenders. ABC’s Robin Roberts interviewed Bloomberg on the July 24 Good Morning America,
where she touted him as "a fiscal conservative but social liberal who
supports gun control and doesn’t take a conservative line on
immigration." She pleaded with Bloomberg: "You’re very passionate about
certain issues. Is there anything that could change your mind and make
you run for President?"

Fred Thompson, Conservative Actor. After his name surfaced as
a potential, if not likely presidential candidate, the networks made
it clear that they thought former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson had
the potential to win it all. "[Thompson] has not even declared his
candidacy for president, and already he has vaulted to second place
among Republicans in a new poll," ABC’s Jake Tapper marveled in a June
13 report.

Yet for all of the Law & Order star’s potential political
heft, the networks have spent less time on Thompson (11 stories) than
more liberal possibilities such as Gore and Bloomberg. Reporters
generally cast interest in Thompson as a rebuke of the rest of the GOP
field. "There is room because there’s such disappointment among
Republicans," political analyst Amy Walter opined on CBS’s The Early Show back in March.

Alone among the top GOP contenders, network reporters unequivocally
tagged Thompson as a "conservative" four times. On March 12, ABC’s
Claire Shipman reported how the "popular conservative" was considering a
presidential bid; over on NBC, reporter Andrea Mitchell saw Thompson as
"against gun control and gay marriage, and just possibly the answer
for restless conservatives." And on the June 13 Good Morning America, ABC’s Tapper similarly cast Thompson as "the man conservatives see as the answer to their presidential prayer."

If and when Thompson takes the plunge, he’s unlikely to receive a
honeymoon from reporters, who’ve already engaged in some sniping. On
May 31, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos recounted "questions about whether
he has fire in his belly, whether he’s been too lazy a
campaigner....[and] about his one term in the Senate, whether it’s a
thin record or not."

And on July 10, NBC’s Today relayed smarmy charges about
Thompson’s wife. "At 40, Jeri Thompson is beautiful, fashionable and 24
years younger than her husband," reporter Michael Okwu pointed out.
"Even the New York Times is wondering, is America ready for a president with a trophy wife?"

Morning TV Interviews: Much More Time for Democrats...

Even more than day-to-day news coverage, the candidates covet
invitations to appear on the networks’ morning shows. As previously
noted, the audience for these shows is far larger than the typical
cable show, and the questioning is usually not rigorous, especially
compared to the politically-oriented Sunday morning talk shows.

Campaign strategists are keenly aware of the value of these appearances, as the Washington Post’s
Howard Kurtz noted August 13: "The top candidates have been more
receptive to the network morning shows, where the questioning is often
limited to six minutes rather than a sustained cross-examination about
their records."

During the first seven months of this year, these network morning
shows have been far more hospitable to Democrats than Republicans. MRC
analysts analyzed 67 morning show appearances by either an announced or
prospective presidential candidate or one of their representatives. Of
those appearances, two-thirds (43) featured Democrats, compared to just
22 for the Republicans. Potential independent candidate Michael
Bloomberg was interviewed twice.

When it came to airtime, the Democratic advantage was even more
pronounced. Interviews with the various Democratic campaigns totaled
275 minutes of coverage, or roughly four and a half hours. In contrast,
the Republicans garnered only 104 minutes of morning show airtime (1
hour, 44 minutes), a greater than two-to-one disparity. (The two
interviews with Bloomberg totaled just over nine minutes.)

When one looks solely at interviews with the candidates themselves
(excluding their husbands, wives or other spokesmen), the gap shrinks
only somewhat. The Democratic candidates still commanded more than
three and a half hours of airtime (214 minutes), while the Republicans
received just over an hour and a half (97 minutes).

Once again, the networks lavished the most attention on the three
Democratic front-runners, with New York Senator Hillary Clinton leading
the pack with nearly 90 minutes of airtime. Clinton herself accounted
for about two-thirds (62 minutes) of her campaign’s exposure on the
morning shows, but the networks also hosted her campaign chairman Terry
McAuliffe, her spokesman Howard Wolfson, a group of her top female
staffers, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

The networks gave Clinton’s Democratic rival John Edwards's campaign
more than an hour of airtime this year (65 minutes), with more than
two-thirds (45 minutes) going to the candidate himself (with the rest
going to his wife, Elizabeth). Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s campaign
gained 53 minutes of face time with morning show viewers — 40 minutes
for the candidate, and the rest for his wife, Michelle.

Former Vice President Al Gore was a network guest eight times,
getting more than 48 minutes of airtime. (MRC analysts only counted
interviews in which a potential Gore presidential campaign was
discussed.) Once again, the non-candidate Gore eclipsed the major GOP
candidates, as the networks gave less airtime to the campaigns of former
Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (40 minutes) and Arizona Senator
John McCain (35 minutes).

The networks hosted second-tier Democratic candidate Joe Biden four
times (19 minutes), making him a more visible morning show presence
than GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani, who was interviewed three times (17
minutes). Interestingly, Giuliani has yet to appear on CBS’s Early Show this year, a show on which Al Gore has appeared four times.

Rounding out the field, potential GOP candidate Newt Gingrich, and
declared Republicans Tom Tancredo and Mike Huckabee have each been
interviewed once this year. None of the other Republican or Democratic
candidates has made an appearance on a network morning show through July
31.

...And Softer Questions, Too

In addition to tallying the airtime each campaign received, MRC
analysts also analyzed the questions posed by their network
interlocutors. In all, the candidates and their surrogates faced 498
questions, or about seven per interview. Just under half of those
questions (228, or 46%) were about substantive policy issues, with most
of the rest focusing on the politics of the moment, along with some of
the notorious softballs that makes morning television such a desirable
venue for candidates.

"Do you have a weakness on the campaign trail, anything that you
have to have with you at all times?" NBC’s Meredith Vieira asked
Senator Barack Obama. "A stuffed animal?" she suggested.

ABC’s Diane Sawyer posed this question to John Edwards: "Do you listen to an iPod? Does it relax you on the road?"

ABC’s Chris Cuomo probably thought he was going to gain an insight
when he asked Republican Senator John McCain about the Democratic
frontrunners: "Who would you rather see in the White House, Hillary
Clinton or Barack Obama?" McCain just laughed at Cuomo: "I don’t
contemplate that seriously."

When it came to substantive questions, journalists heavily
emphasized liberal talking points over questions that reflected a
conservative agenda. About two-thirds of the substantive questions
(157, or 69%) could be categorized as reflecting either a liberal or a
conservative view. (The remaining 31% were either mixed or neutral.)
Reporters gravitated to a liberal agenda regardless of whether they
were challenging a liberal Democrat or a Republican with more
conservative views.

Of the 111 agenda questions posed to Democrats, more than twice as
many reflected liberal priorities (77, or 69%) as confronted the
candidate with a conservative point (34, or 31%). But while journalists
were relatively shy about hitting the Democrats with conservative
questions, they routinely tossed liberal questions to the Republican
candidates. Of the 45 agenda questions posed to the GOP candidates, 37
of them (82%) were predicated on liberal ideas, compared to just eight
questions (18%) that reflected a conservative agenda. These findings
mirror what MRC found four years ago when it conducted a similar study
of questions to the Democratic candidates on the same morning shows
and found 87 percent based on a liberal agenda, compared to just 13
percent showing a conservative agenda.

As in 2003, the Democrats were generally subjected to questions
that matched their own point of view. On January 17, NBC’s Matt Lauer
cued up Hillary Clinton with a Democratic talking point on the war in
Iraq: "When one U.S. military official said in Baghdad, quote, ‘We are
implementing a strategy to embolden a government that is actually part
of the problem. We are being played like a pawn,’ you would agree with
that?"

"I certainly would agree with that," Clinton quickly answered.

The same day, ABC’s Diane Sawyer also interviewed Clinton, along
with 15 other female U.S. senators. Sawyer sounded as if she was
pitching a Clinton presidency: "Do you believe that if there were more
women presidents in the world, there would be less war?"

The softballs weren’t confined to foreign policy. Referring to the
firing of U.S. Attorneys, NBC’s Vieira on March 15 invited Obama to
slam Attorney General Alberto Gonzales: "He also says that he did not
know the extent of what his chief of staff was doing with the White
House counsel. If that is true, what does it say about the Justice
Department to you?"

When Al Gore was on NBC’s Today on July 5, Vieira treated him
as a scientific expert: "Mr. Gore, can you explain some of the science
behind global warming?" She also pleaded with him: "If this is the
number one moral issue, and the President is the key player here, then
why wouldn’t the man whose face is the face of this issue be running
for President?"

At the Good Morning America town hall-style meeting on March
26, co-host Robin Roberts indulged Clinton: "A lot of people feel like
they’re rolling the dice every morning about their health care. They
can’t afford it. And two-thirds — did you realize this? — two-thirds of
Americans who do not have health insurance are working!"

On February 5, NBC’s Lauer patted Edwards on the back: "I’ll
applaud your honesty. You basically have come out and said, ‘Look, I
want universal health care for everyone in this country, and I’m going
to raise taxes to accomplish it.’ Senator Obama, Senator Clinton also
would like to see universal health care. What’s the main difference in
your plan versus theirs?"

Sometimes the Democrats were challenged as not liberal enough.
Reminding Edwards of his multi-million dollar house and work at a hedge
fund, Diane Sawyer put him on the spot during the July 16 town
hall-style meeting: "Can you be among the privileged in this country and
really make a difference in poverty, really in your heart be committed
to solving poverty?"

In a February 22 interview, Vieira hit Edwards with condemnation
from the even more liberal Dennis Kucinich: "He said, quote, ‘We had an
audition for President in October 2002,' and that the President must
have, again his words, ‘the clarity of vision, the judgment to make the
right decisions on life and death matters.’ The implication being that
those who voted for the war failed the audition. People like you failed
the audition. Do you agree with that, sir?"

But reporters did press the Democrats to respond to some
conservative arguments. On January 11, Vieira asked the anti-war Obama:
"What if the President is right and, if he were to remove the troops,
redeploy them, that that country, Iraq, would fall into total chaos, we
would lose control of that country? Are you willing to face that
possibility?"

In July, ABC’s Sawyer similarly hit Edwards over his plan to quickly
withdraw U.S. troops: "What does that say to the Iraqi people? Where
does that leave them? What if ethnic cleansing begins? Do you send the
troops back in? What do you do?" She followed up: "What is the plan to
control civil war, except going back in?" Edwards replied, "Well, it’s
not an easy thing...."

For the Republican candidates, it was much more common to be forced
to respond to liberal arguments. In a March 28 exchange, ABC’s Chris
Cuomo lectured the pro-surge John McCain on the war in Iraq: "Your
friend Senator Hagel calls the position you were putting forward
‘arrogant’ and ‘self-delusional.’...Do you have to be looking at Iraq
through rose-colored glasses to see progress?"

That same day, CBS’s Hannah Storm also confronted McCain about Iraq:
"Why shouldn’t we have a deadline for pulling out of Iraq?...The
violence and bombings continue and American soldiers and Marines and
Iraqi civilians are dying nearly every day here. Why do you think we’re
succeeding?"

Interviewing GOP Representative Tom Tancredo, a staunch opponent of
illegal immigration, ABC’s Cuomo was contentious. Referring to the
defeat of a compromise Senate bill that would have legalized millions
of illegal immigrants, Cuomo demanded to know: "Why did you feel the
need to rip a bill like this down?" The ABC anchor kept up the hostile
tone throughout the interview.

In July, NBC’s Lauer suggested to former Arkansas Governor Mike
Huckabee that conservatism might not matter to GOP voters: "Let me make
sure people know where you stand, pro-life, pro-gun, anti-gay
marriage. If you’re the authentic conservative, why aren’t you being
embraced more in the polls in states that generally embrace
conservatives, early primary states? And why are guys who’ve been
questioned about their standing on certain social issues, like Giuliani
and Mitt Romney, why are they leading the pack?"

And in an interview with Mitt and Ann Romney, CBS’s Storm seemed
baffled at their opposition to embryonic stem cell research, even
though Mrs. Romney suffers from multiple sclerosis. "The Multiple
Sclerosis Society has been very clear, they say that embryonic stem
cell research has the potential to be used to protect and rebuild the
tissues damaged by MS," Storm told Romney. "Can you explain why you are
against federal funding?"

It was rare that one of the Republican candidates was interrogated
from the right, but NBC’s Vieira did challenge former New York City
Mayor Rudy Giuliani back in January: "How are you going to get
nominated, sir?...You’re pro-choice, pro-gay civil unions, pro-gun
control — not exactly the kinds of positions many Republicans favor."

There’s certainly journalistic merit in confronting a Republican
candidate with liberal arguments, so that potential primary voters can
evaluate the candidate’s ability to explain and defend his positions.
But by tilting their interviews with GOP candidates away from the
conservative issues that matter most to primary voters, while
simultaneously emphasizing a liberal agenda for Democratic guests, the
morning shows steered the debate in both parties toward the left.

That’s great news if you’re a liberal activist hoping to draw more
voters to your side on Election Day. But it’s bad news for those who
expect the networks to cover all sides in a fair and balanced way.

Conclusion: The Networks Must Find Their Balance

In spite of the heavy activity seen thus far, Campaign 2008 is far
from over. If history is an accurate guide, the networks will provide
their heaviest coverage of the primary campaigns in January and
February; then a long campaign between the two party nominees will
commence, with the heaviest news coverage of the two party conventions
and the fall debates.

Yet the first seven months of this campaign already provide evidence
of a disturbing tilt in network news coverage. It’s long been
established that most of the top network reporters and other members of
the media elite hold mainly liberal policy views and vote
overwhelmingly for Democrats on Election Day. This study shows that the
networks are focusing much more of their time and energy covering the
Democratic nomination race than the Republican contest, and are more
frequently opening their airwaves to the Democratic candidates. Add to
that the fact that the coverage of the major Democratic candidates has
been more favorable, and that the agenda of network news interviews has
reflected the liberal priorities of the Democratic Party, and the case
for the networks showing partisan favor in this election cycle begins
to sharpen.

One potential rebuke to this thesis is the possibility that the skew
we have documented is the result of the GOP candidates shunning the
networks, rather than the networks being stingy in opening their
airwaves to the Republicans. If true, however, it would still not
explain the differences in the tone of each party’s coverage, nor would
it explain reporters emphasizing a liberal agenda.

Indeed, if the Republican candidates are more wary of appearing on
ABC, CBS and NBC (and it should be pointed out that all of the top
declared GOP candidates have made multiple appearances on those
networks), what would it be about the networks’ past coverage that has
made them so apprehensive? By their nature, presidential campaigns are
publicity-seeking machines. For a candidate to eschew an opportunity to
reach millions of voters on a given network, it follows that there is
some rational basis for believing that they would not receive a fair
shake. The candidates may merely be recognizing and reacting to the
bias we have found.

The broadcast networks have a responsibility to cover both parties
in a fair and even-handed manner — not for the sake of the candidates,
but for the voters. That means giving viewers a chance to hear from all
of the major candidates in interviews, asking them similar questions,
and balancing the day-to-day news coverage to keep both Democratic and
Republican primary voters equally well-informed. It’s obviously going
to be a long campaign. The networks have an obligation to make it a
fair campaign as well.

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